Can't make your mind up?

5 Perfect Places for Stargazing

You are here

Share this

January 10, 2017

Since the dawn of human consciousness, we have gazed up at the stars and wondered: what are these mysterious lights that fill the sky? Are they gods? Magic? The souls of the departed? Though the advent of science put ideas like these out to pasture, one thing hasn’t changed... there’s no sight more wondrous than the sky at night. Great celestial bodies wheeling slowly across the sky, shooting stars flaring into existence, gone as swiftly as they came, the moon bathing the Earth in its pale light; for the lucky few, the Milky Way itself becomes visible. You won’t get sights like this at home – it requires travelling to someplace wild, where light pollution won’t spoil the view. Here are five of the best places on the planet for stargazing...

Mongolia

Starry sky over camp in Mongolia

Step out of your ger and behold the wonder of the Mongolian night. The endless blue skies of the daytime give way to an inky black field of shimmering lights. Mongolia is known for its open steppes and its extremely sparse population; light pollution is all but non-existent here, so there’s nothing between you and the universe.

Namibia

Stargazing in Namibia

Namibia is a desert wilderness, home to vast expanses of sun-baked earth, rippling sand dunes and salt pans above which the air shimmers in the midday heat. Out in this harsh, remote land, everything possesses a noble and sun-blasted beauty, from the rocks to the majestic wildlife, but there’s no sight more beautiful than the desert at night, when everything cools down and takes on a serene, moonlight grace as the stars pass overhead.

Finland

Though there are many places on Earth good for stargazing, there are few where you can see the fantastical light show that is the Northern Lights. The fact that Finland is one of them merits inclusion on this list alone! Add in creaking frozen lakes, hushed pine forests and vast fields of freshly fallen snow, and you’ve got a perfect spot for an evening of stargazing.

Patagonia

Patagonia is a land of extremes; lush forests and barren mountains, icy glaciers and wide open plains. The thing these wildernesses all share is the South American sky – vast and clear, it’s not uncommon to see the Milky Way spanning over this gorgeous land.

Jordan

In Jordan’s Bedouin camps, sleeping beneath the stars is not uncommon. As the embers of the campfire die and the desert becomes still, you can drift off to sleep staring at the infinite and wondrous vastness of space, its ocean of stars shining.